The increased popularity for boating has resulted in increased waterway traffic and created a substantial need for reliable and effective marine safety lighting equipment for boats. National coast guard and international marine regulations require power driven and sailing vessels to display an all-round white anchor light with a visibility of two nautical miles, except in designated anchorages. While reliable operation of a safety light is critical to preventing accidental collisions during darkness and inclement weather conditions, many boats still do not consistently comply with these regulations due to a lack of market available reliable and energy efficient marine safety lights.
Most marine safety lighting systems such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,591 to Jordan utilize one or more incandescent light bulbs as the light source. Incandescent bulbs are used for their omni-directional light characteristics as they provide illumination 360 degrees around the bulb. However, the use of incandescent bulbs results in an unreliable and ineffective device which requires a high degree of maintenance, due to several physical shortcomings of incandescent lamps and their general incompatibility with the marine environment.
Incandescent bulbs consist of a resistive tungsten filament suspended by support wires with a vacuum inside a glass envelope. As a result, they are highly susceptible to damage due to variations in temperature, mechanical shock or vibration and voltage spikes or transients. Since safety marine lights are generally positioned on top of a masthead for optimal visibility, severe environmental and/or mechanical damage may occur when the boat traverses rough water. Under such conditions additional forces and stresses are exerted on the entire masthead light assembly. Further, since the typical life of incandescent lamps usually averages around a thousand hours, it must be replaced several times during the course of the year simply due to normal life expiry. It is common for users to forget or delay replacing bulbs when they have expired, especially when the marine safety light is inconveniently positioned on the boat (i.e. on a masthead).
Further, since incandescent bulbs have high power requirements, their use in a marine safety light can cause other significant safety problems. Most marine safety lights such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,452 to Pingel et al. are adapted to draw power through the boat's electrical system from the boat's battery. However, since incandescent bulbs will run down a boat's battery at a rapid rate due to the high draw of the bulb, crucial boat systems can be affected resulting in significant inconvenience and even serious danger. This eventuality causes boaters to neglect to use their safety lights due to the effect on their boat's power system. Further, the use of a stand alone battery powered safety light system requires frequent replacement of the battery as incandescent bulbs run down battery power at a high rate.
Thus, there is a need for a marine light which can safely and reliably provide omni-directional light, which can operate for a long period of time on a convenient energy supply, and which requires minimal maintenance.